Bored at work: has your energy for your job vanished?

Digital reporter

You’re not alone. Latest research from CV Library has found that boredom affects nearly half of UK workers (44.9 per cent), with 54 per cent admitting that they have looked for a new job as a result of the daily grind.

The survey, of 1,200 professionals k, found that 19.5 per cent of UK workers admitted to feeling bored on a weekly basis and 23.7 per cent were bored every single day at work. In fact only 19.3 per cent of workers stated that they were never bored at work.

When asked why they felt this way, the monotony of work appears to be the biggest problem with 26.6 per cent of respondents saying it’s because they do the same thing every day. The second most popular reason was because they dislike their job (21.8 per cent). Tedious daily tasks was the third most common reason (16.6 per cent); 14.3 per cent said it was because there’s little work to do whilst 8.3 per cent said it’s because they work alone.

“It is very disappointing to see boredom getting the best of the UK’s workers,” says Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library.

A bored workforce also has a major effect on staff turnaround according to Biggins. “Prolonged boredom in a job can lead, very quickly, to burnout, low productivity and, inevitably, a high turnover of staff for businesses, so it’s extremely important that each and every employee in a company feels engaged in their day-to-day work.”

In a bid to quash the boredom, 28.8 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they would prioritise their workload in a bid to re-engage with the work at hand, 15 per cent would set deadlines for themselves and 12.8 per cent listen to music.

Biggins adds, “While it is good that UK workers have coping mechanisms in place to ensure that their productivity levels don’t decline, there is clearly a worrying trend of boredom in the workplace.” So how can employees be kept more entertained?

“It is up to employers to identify disengaged workers and find ways of reinjecting purpose and interest into their job role, or risk a high turnover of staff as a result,” Biggins explains. “In some cases, it may be that workers are simply not in the correct job, and they should take boredom as a sign that they need to start searching for a new job”.